Live blog: Adam Yates misses Tirreno-Adriatico win by less than a second, Ineos accused of "greenwashing" over Team Sky deal, Bike shop assistant 'mansplains' clipless pedals to Olympic cyclist + more

Butty wrote:

Surely an Olympian expert would know not to pedal through corners and take chunks out of their cage pedals?

Of course not. Every half decent racing cyclist has an urge to push things a bit; thats what racing is about. If you can pedal through a corner (or anywhere else) it is quicker than freewheeling and as long as you don't bash it hard enough to bounce a wheel and lose traction it is no big deal. Before everyone moved to clipless pedals (which generally have more ground clearence and thus allow more pedalling through corners) any half decent road racing cyclist would have taken chunks out of their pedals on corners. A look around the bikes ridden by the pros in town centre crits revealed that they were pretty heavily used and most would have pdeal scrapes from hard cornering.

Some bike shops stocked extra left side Campag end caps because dragging the left one on the ground could cause it to unscrew and lots were lost that way.

Drinfinity wrote:

For town I doubt the cages are strapped down to track tightness, they would be fine on a good brogue, and yes I was thinking of MTB flats with shin-eating studs on. 

If your not going to do them up tight then surely there’s no point in them over flats?

John Smith wrote:

Drinfinity wrote:

For town I doubt the cages are strapped down to track tightness, they would be fine on a good brogue, and yes I was thinking of MTB flats with shin-eating studs on. 

If your not going to do them up tight then surely there’s no point in them over flats?

"Cages"? I presume that this is youth-speak for toe-clips?  Y'know, it's the reason why you call modern pedals clipless even though your cleats are clipped in?

@John Smith: Riding with loose toe straps allows you to get a foot down quickly yet stops you slipping off the pedal when honking. 

Drinfinity wrote:

So you can ride into the office in your work shoes? So you don’t rip your hosiery or shins on the studs on flats?

I just leave my work shoes at work. Problem solved

John Smith wrote:

Genuine question, why would someone go for cages over clipless? Reading the twitter feed it’s almost like  some people don’t know SPDs exist. Lots of talk about silly shoes and wanting to walk. I can’t think of any reason to use cages over SPDs, unless you expect to change footwear a lot, which is quite a small use case and reasonable for someone in a shop to assume that someone buying cages might want some advice. It seems more like arrogant elite athlete (something I have been on the receiving end of, both from athletes and other high achievers, for example academics) than mansplaning.

 

I get the reason some people use flats (as I do on some bikes) but I genuinely can’t see why 99.99% of people would go for cages over flats or SPDs. I’d be interested to know if there is an objective reason. Cages seem downright dangerous on a commute, where you stop and start all the time and are in traffic.

It works for her which is all that matters but for most, I'd have thought either flat pedals or spds would be more appropriate....which is why I think the minimum wage shop assistant was at least half right.

Not read the social media posts on this so maybe I'm misreading something?

StoopidUserName wrote:

John Smith wrote:

Genuine question, why would someone go for cages over clipless? Reading the twitter feed it’s almost like  some people don’t know SPDs exist. Lots of talk about silly shoes and wanting to walk. I can’t think of any reason to use cages over SPDs, unless you expect to change footwear a lot, which is quite a small use case and reasonable for someone in a shop to assume that someone buying cages might want some advice. It seems more like arrogant elite athlete (something I have been on the receiving end of, both from athletes and other high achievers, for example academics) than mansplaning.

 

I get the reason some people use flats (as I do on some bikes) but I genuinely can’t see why 99.99% of people would go for cages over flats or SPDs. I’d be interested to know if there is an objective reason. Cages seem downright dangerous on a commute, where you stop and start all the time and are in traffic.

It works for her which is all that matters but for most, I'd have thought either flat pedals or spds would be more appropriate....which is why I think the minimum wage shop assistant was at least half right. Not read the social media posts on this so maybe I'm misreading something?

Which is fine, people can use what they want, but there is no reason for her on anyone else to be a dick when a shop assistant assumes that you might want to be pointed to an objectively better choice. All she had to do was say “no thank you. I have tried clipless and prefer cages” rather than spouting off about being an Olympic athlete and claiming he was being sexist. 

StoopidUserName wrote:

Mansplaining or just giving advice which he'll probably give regardless of gender (rightly or wrongly)

And she's a bit up her own arse to instantly come out with the Olympian bollox. How about "no I'm an experienced cyclist and know what i want. Thanks anyway" or something less arsey?

It would be sexist if the bloke didn't give out unsolicited patronising advice to both sexes.

IME as a man shopping in a bike shop, this is not the case.....